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Thank you to all of you who answered my previous questions about Uniworld and AMA. I was almost ready to go with a Uniworld cruise from Vienna to Amsterdam until I started reading about Tauck!

I am now torn between the Uniworld cruise and Tauck's Budapest to Black Sea cruise. Both itineraries look amazing. I am leaning towards Tauck because they are supposed to be top of the line but it is very hard to find photos of their boats. The few photos I saw of Swiss Sapphire's cabins didn't look anywhere near as nice as Uniworld or AMA.

Does anyone have any input on this? I would also love to hear more about the Budapest to Black Sea trip.

I am sure Tauck is a wonderful experience but many people have said that the Budapest to the Black sea is not at all scenic and can be very depressing.These countries are still emerging from communism and the cities look like it. The reason you are not seeing a lot about it is that it is not a popular cruise. I suggest you consider going the other way from Budapest to Amsterdam.We did that cruise a couple of years ago and it was fantastic. Another popular and scenic cruise is from Amsterdam to Basel on the Rhine and Moselle.We are hoping to do this cruise in the future.

We covered the Vienna to Amsterdam route on our Budapest to Amsterdam cruise. It is a very scenic route and I am sure you will really enjoy it. I have heard wonderful things about Uniworld. I don't think I have ever seen a negative review about them.

I can not give you our opinion of a Tauck River Cruise since we haven't done that. We have taken 3 Uniworld River Cruises and I just booked our 4th one. We have been extremely pleased with Uniworld! The Tour Managers have been fantastic, food very good and they will do everything possible to make sure you are satisifed and have a great trip. I think you will be very happy with them! Our 2nd last trip with Uniworld was Vienna to Amsterdam and it was terrific. Beautiful scenery and charming little towns. We have also done the tulips and Windmills ,which was an awesome cruise, and last month did Egypt with a 7 day Nile cruise. We have never been disappointed with Uniworld's service.
That being said--we have taken 4 Tauck land trips and think they are also an excellent company! I guess I would go with the itinerary and the price, but ( IMO) you can't go wrong with Uniworld.
next trip?

We are thinking of booking a Cat. 3 on the River Countess for the Vienna/Amsterdam route. The rooms looks small but neat and clean. I like the fact that the dining room has tables of two. Is there anything else about the ship good or bad that I should know?

We will be taking the River Countess in Sept. for the Eastern Europe Explorer. The room size in Cat.3 is 151 sq.ft. We've had this on the Baroness and the Royal. It's quite adequate for the amount of time you spend in the room. It's not a room for entertaining, but there's enough room to be comfortable.Carol

Hi,
We just booked the River Beatrice for next Fall. It is basically the same route we have taken before but does have Salzburg and Passau included and we haven't done those ports. The River Beatrice looks elegant and gets good reviews so we decided to do that. We ar eplanning to take a side trip to Prague on our own. We were in Prague about 4 years ago on our Eastern Europe trip and always wanted to go back. A beautiful city!
next trip?

Last July, we booked the "Enchanting Danube" on the River Beatrice for April 17-25--Passau to Budapest.

It is our first river cruise. Very excited...but especially after reading all of the posts on this forum.

Thanks to all of you for the excellent information and for taking the time to share your experiences on river cruising.

I am booked on the River Beatrice and will be boarding as you depart on April 25. This is my first river cruise and I am very, very excited about it.

I do have a question. For Captain's Dinner nights, how "dressed up" is expected? Is it as formal as on ocean cruises? Thanks for any help with this. I don't want to be over or under dressed and look like a fish out of water.

River cruising is very casual,not dressy at all.At dinner men wear dress slacks or Docker type pants with a collared shirt or nice sweater. For the ladies a pair of black dress slacks with different nice tops or a casual dress is all you need for dinner.You really do not need sparkles etc.For days it's jeans,capris etc.Leave the shorts at home as to enter some of the churches your clothes should come below your knee.

River cruising is very casual,not dressy at all.At dinner men wear dress slacks or Docker type pants with a collared shirt or nice sweater. For the ladies a pair of black dress slacks with different nice tops or a casual dress is all you need for dinner.You really do not need sparkles etc.For days it's jeans,capris etc.Leave the shorts at home as to enter some of the churches your clothes should come below your knee.

Thank you so much. This is exactly the information I need. Packing will surely be easier than for cruise ship cruising and that is a good thing.

Sorry folks, my home church, a well to do Episcopal Church, welcomes shorts in the summer at Sunday services. Imho attitude means a lot more than appearance. I see many attractively long panted or skirted individuals taking pictures liberally even right next to signs saying verboten. If you are not being a slob shorts are appropriate. They are also worn to services in Bermuda.

Well this subject has been beat to death but just keep in mind that Europeons do not wear shorts unless they are participating in an athletic event.They definitely do not wear shorts in Church. I agree that is is a matter of respecting other cultures which as a guest in their country I prefer to do.You can always tell Americans as they are the ones in the shorts.